ARI Films
Simply About Kabbalah
Part 3
Talks with a Kabbalist Michael Laitman
How to Master the Kabbalah Method
Whom can we consider a Kabbalist and whom—not? Say, dear viewer, you started to study Kabbalah. The next stage—you found a Kabbalistic book, then had a look at the Internet, and saw a film about Kabbalah. Are you already called a “Kabbalist” or not? How can we determine who is a Kabbalist and who is not? In general, how does one master the method of Kabbalah?
A person lives, exists at a certain level of energy. He reaches the state when he feels the need to answer the questions, “Who am I? What do I live for? What is the meaning of my life?” Sometimes, a person is not quite aware of this question, does not even feel, or realize it, and thus simply falls into depression; one begins searching for something, and feels lost and empty.
We see that humankind does not clearly ask the question about the meaning of our existence. However, drugs and depression indicate that this is an acute, pressing problem. So, people come to this; in one place or another, they hear that such a thing as the Science of Kabbalah, it seems, answers this question. There are people who hear this, and there are those who continue to exist as they did before: “Well, what can I do? I just gotta keep going with it. I was born against my will, so I’ll live against my will.”
What good does it do if a person opens a Kabbalistic book, the source of Kabbalistic information? Its benefit is as follows. (Drawing) There is a book in our world that talks about the Upper World. It was written by an author who existed above our world. The level of our world is only the attainment of what we see and feel. Meanwhile, here we have a book written by a person who perceived the Upper World, say, at this level of penetration into it (Drawing). Perceiving that level, this person (he was a human being living in a body, while in his attainment he was up there) wrote about his attainment in that book. This is a Kabbalist. He wrote a book about this, meaning, he wrote a book about the Spiritual World, the Spiritual Degrees.
Now I—not a Kabbalist—am next to this book. This can be taking place in a completely different era, or at the time when this Kabbalist is still alive—it does not matter. So here I am in my body. I have no spiritual attainment at all. I open a book written by a Kabbalist, read it, and inside, I have a burning desire to find out what he is talking about. He is talking about something beyond our world, yet I do not know what. To the measure of my desire, the Upper Light, that Upper energy, the Higher attainment of that Kabbalist shines upon me from above. Thus, little by little, a Screen is born in me. A Screen is just like a screen on which I will begin to feel the forces and images of the Upper World. It emerges in me specifically under the influence, from above, of the authentic Kabbalistic sources.
Hence, we must not simply read any books written by some Kabbalists or half-Kabbalists, or non-Kabbalists who pass themselves off as Kabbalists. We should read recognized, approved sources that are as if officially authentic. Otherwise, we will just be reading mere fiction, ordinary literature conceived in our world.
So it follows that, in fact, what interests me in a Kabbalistic book is not its content per se. It is all the same to me. I am unable to understand the content itself. I am interested in the luminescence that descends upon me from the book and builds a Screen in me. The effect of Kabbalah study—this is what is important—the effect of its study is in acquiring a Screen—the sixth sense.
This is why we have to study authentic Kabbalistic books. And we know them. First of all, this is the book of the last Kabbalist, Baal HaSulam, Talmud Eser Sefirot, The Book of Zohar with his commentary, the book of the great ARI, The Tree of Life (if we go back in history), The Book of Zohar itself, the Bible (the Kabbalistic interpretation of what Moses wrote), then The Book of Creation written by Abraham. There are a few more Kabbalistic sources that we use, since their luminescence from above enriches us, it is great and effective. In essence, this is the principle of study.
In general, how does a person who studies according to a Kabbalist’s book become a Kabbalist himself? A Screen emerges in me. The emergence of a Screen indicates that I have, in some way, transformed. A Screen emerges in me, and I start feeling the universe above the level of our world. In Kabbalah, the level of our world is called “Machsom.” Machsom is a barrier: I pass it, and this point of entering the Upper World is called “spiritual birth.” Afterwards, I ascend the degrees of attainment of this Upper World until the point at which that Kabbalist wrote his book. I can continue to ascend, and each time I must rise to the highest degree of attaining the entire universe. We feel the highest degree as perfection, eternity, as not being bounded by time or anything at all.
This is the level that one must attain while still existing in his body. In this way, he connects, through himself, all the states, from the most spiritual state to the most corporeal one. As soon as a person reaches such a level, it is considered that he fulfilled his predestination, that he became a true Human.
In total, there are one hundred and twenty-five such degrees of attainment of the Upper World, Upper State, Upper Nature. They divide into five worlds, where each consists of twenty-five more sub-degrees. In total, there are one hundred and twenty-five degrees.
What Does a Kabbalist Begin to See?
How does a Kabbalist know that he has received the sixth sense? Through the Kabbalistic books, he starts to see what they are talking about. Moreover, he sees it clearly, both in senses and in mind, contrasting these areas of perceiving knowledge so that it gives him an absolutely clear picture of reality.
That is, the attainment of the Upper World as a result of studying Kabbalistic sources is absolutely real, repeatable and measurable. I can experience it, I can understand, realize, and measure all of its parameters, to convey it to the other person in a form of formulas, numbers, or records. That other person will then reproduce it. This is similar to when a musician writes sheet music, and another musician, knowing, being able to read the score, sings and feels it by looking at these symbols. This is also how information is transferred from Kabbalist to Kabbalist. Meaning, the Science of Kabbalah is science in a true sense of the word, and possesses all the instruments that any science must have.
Our World and the Development of Egoism
In order to gain a deeper understanding of our condition, let us examine the nature of our world. Kabbalists who penetrate into the depths of nature—from our nature going into the higher one from which everything descended into our world—tell us that there is the Upper World from where everything descends into our world.
What is this “everything” that descends into our world? What was formed in our world? They say that our world exists below the level where egoism—the will to receive—manifests. This desire, at its still, vegetative, animate, and human levels, exists in our world in all of its manifestations.
This is how our world developed: from the still egoism that gave birth to all still objects, to vegetative, animate, and then speaking. Meaning, this is a very gradual development of egoism from the zero level, and this is what created all matter of our world.
Later, after the appearance of the human being, egoism developed at the human level. These four stages of egoism’s development exist in a human being as well. So called bodily desires—the desires for plentiful food, family, sexual pleasures, protection, home, children, and so on—are the first to manifest in a human being. We would have these desires even living separate from the whole society, that is, these are our purely natural desires.
The subsequent development of egoism makes us crave riches. Riches are not just money in the bank. This is also confidence, a person’s strength and ability to provide for himself. This next period yielded the next formation in our world—the transition from a primitive lifestyle to a more social coexistence.
Further development of egoism resulted in the emergence of the aspiration for power in humans. New social relationships surfaced between people. Egoism grew more, and there came the state of aspiration for knowledge. The collapse of the aspiration for knowledge—this is the state in which we, today, find ourselves. In our world, we have already become convinced that knowledge does not make us happy; knowledge does not answer the questions that surface in a person. We are already beyond knowledge.
After these four types of egoism’s development, that are also called “still,” “vegetative,” “animate,” and “human,” a new type of egoism emerges in us. This egoism is not inside of us, it is above us. Meaning, with a new type of egoism a person begins to aspire toward the Upper—toward something that exists outside of our world.
We receive knowledge, power, fame, riches, bodily pleasures from what exists around us. I satisfy bodily desires by myself. I satisfy the desires for riches, power, and honor through society. I satisfy the desire for knowledge through my individual development, of course, with the support of everything that goes before. This is individual development. Meanwhile, a new desire that emerges in us after all these desires is special. It is the aspiration toward that which does not exist within the framework of our world, that which I cannot satisfy neither through my body, nor through the surrounding society or individual achievements in our world.
A Point in the Heart
I begin to aspire toward something, yet, I do not know toward what. Since humankind cannot find the answers to the question—“What is the purpose of our existence?”—that originates out of this new emerging desire in us, it hence falls into depression, drugs, terror. This is the yearning for our source from where we all originated, from where we descended. However, this is still an unconscious desire in us. I just see that in our world, I cannot fill myself with anything. I yearn for something, for the source of delight which is absent in this world. Hence, depression, drugs, terror, and so on.
All of the previous human desires are called “heart.” Meanwhile, the point that emerges in a person—this new desire for the spiritual, for the source—is called “a point in the heart.”
In other words, we can picture it in the following way: we have a heart—this is all our desires that exist in us. Inside of this heart a point emerges. Where does it come from? This point emerged from descending to this world from above. Here, this point was clothed in matter, however, only a part of it. It has also remained as the spiritual point—embryo, and it is not awakening in us.
Meaning, after the development of his entire egoism—bodily, riches, fame, and knowledge—a person suddenly discovers that he has completely new desires not for our world. Hence, he is torn between the two desires: on the one side, he has a heart, the desires for bodily pleasures, riches, fame, power, and knowledge, and everything that all of these desires entail. On the other side, he has a desire for something outside of this world. Hence emerges dissonance, great tension between the heart and the point in the heart. This point in the heart is called “a part, an embryo of the future soul.”
The Desire to Perceive the Upper World
What does “of the future soul” mean? The desire to perceive the Upper World is called “the soul.” A person has to develop this point through Kabbalah studies until a state in which it swells into a huge sphere, out of which a person feels the Upper World, his eternal perfect state, and begins to live in his new state, in his new perception. This perception prevails over his heart, over all his earthly desires so much that he identifies himself with this higher state—with the point in the heart—and thus connects to this endless flow of Upper energy and information, that exists at the spiritual level, absolutely unconnected with our world. A person starts swimming in this endless and eternal ocean of information, Upper Light.
This is, in part, what people who have experienced clinical death tell us about: how they felt the Upper Light that pulled them somewhere, how good, endless, and so on it was. We all have to reach this state. When we reach such a state, even while still in our body, we no longer treat the body as something that is very important. It is suppressed, much like a little desire is suppressed by a big one. So, this is how our body with its desires is suppressed by this huge desire and tremendous sensation that carries the attainment of the Upper World. We have to rise to such a level and exist in it.
It is a responsibility of everybody living on Earth to rise to this level. Why is this everybody’s responsibility? It is because nature is pushing us toward this and will not let any of us—or all of us together—go, until we return to the level from which we descended into this world. So it follows that we will continue to reincarnate until we fulfill our predestination.
Why Did We Descend Into This World?
In general, why do we have to descend into this world? Indeed, we once existed in the Upper World, at the Higher level, merged with the Upper creation, in the endless flow of matter, energy, and spiritual information. The problem is that when we existed at that level, we were in the unconscious state which we neither chose, nor attained, and thus perceived just our minimal state at that level. This resembles a point included in the Upper World, the Upper Light, or a fetus that exists inside of the mother, unaware of itself. It does exist; we treat it as something living, however, we look at it as at the rudiment of a future life.
A person descends into this world and begins to cultivate his egoism, feeling in it mundane states of this world. When he later starts to independently ascend the one hundred and twenty-five degrees toward the attainment of the Upper World, he goes through these attainments, these states, by his free choice, his effort. Hence, when he reaches that state—his original state—it is no longer minimal, but he rather feels it as the maximum. He feels it as infinitely bigger than the previous state. What does it “infinitely” mean? —Incomparably. If here he exists as a point, as a fetus in the mother’s womb, then here he is a grown-up person who understands life. So these states, these perceptions, are incomparable. Here—he is the seed of the soul, while here—we have a full desire, a point in the heart turned into an enormous vessel, filled with all of the spiritual information. This vessel is called “the soul.”
So it follows that a person himself creates, raises his soul from its seed, and so all reception, all realization, all revelation, all attainment is personally his: it is perceived by him personally. He aspires for it, and by thus receiving it, he feels enormous pleasure, fulfillment. Meanwhile, a fetus, even if it develops in the mother’s womb, does not perceive that it itself attains, or delights. It is under the complete influence of the Upper—the Upper raises it.
Here, however, a person anticipates his development with his efforts, desires, and aspirations. Hence, as he develops, his aspiration anticipates reception and thus it is felt as true fulfillment.
The ascent from below upward occurs according to a very interesting, special system. Existing in this world, a person is under the influence of two Upper forces: from one side—the developing spiritual force (positive force); from the other side—egoistical force that constantly develops inside of him (negative force). A person exists as though between these two forces, he sees how they pressure and develop him. Between them, he finds his own spiritual development built on the correct combination of these forces within him. Their correct combination can create a possibility for freedom of will, freedom of action in a person which is totally absent in everything else and cannot exist otherwise.
Meaning, unless we create this state within us, we are never free. Why? It is because we are born with predetermined properties.
About Freedom of Will
Scientists say even today: there is a gene for our every movement, for our every desire. I am raised in a family, society, nation, time period, state, and so on, that I did not choose, and not according to my will; I do not choose anything at all. I become an adult already filled with all kinds of programs of behavior and value systems that are not mine. Afterwards, I exist in a society which dictates to me from the outside, and it keeps on dictating. That is, from within—this is not me; from outside—the surrounding society—it is not me either. So, if we knew in advance what exists inside of a person, we would be able to calculate the entire, full program of his behavior—it would be easy for us. We simply do not know this. However, this only tells us that we do not know. In reality, a person always acts forcedly, and has no freedom of action at all.
If this is so, if we are not free, then is there such a thing as reward and punishment? —Of course not. So then, in general, what is the purpose of all this existence? Is it to force these protein bodies to simply exist?
The prerequisite for freedom of will appears in a person when a point in the heart manifests in him, that is, when he has two desires relating to two different worlds, two different levels of existence, different dimensions. And freedom of will is realized when a person starts to ascend spiritually. As these two opposite forces act upon him, he uses them in order to balance himself in the most optimal spiritual development. He is then capable of action called “freedom of will.”
The free action of a human being is otherwise unimaginable, by any other means. Action is always based on what is “I” and what surrounds me—the environment. And they are always given: my properties are predetermined, not to speak about environment which never depends on me and is predetermined as well. Thus, nobody is free in our world except for those who, through the Kabbalah method, begin to ascend to their root, their initial spiritual state.
Once a person has this opportunity for freedom of will, he then has a possibility to influence his fate. Until that moment, such a possibility does not exist. That is, I already went through dozens of lives and through a few decades of this life, and only now, when I hear that there is a method which can help me reach freedom of will, to rise above this world and act freely, having attained the Upper World; only now can I realize freedom that is presupposed, that is offered to me. There is no other way.
Does a person know what to do with this freedom? A person attains the Upper existence, the Spiritual World, the Upper forces, to the measure that the person knows, feels, and understands how to realize this freedom that is now emerging in him correctly. Meaning, one behaves correctly and understands how to direct oneself upward in the most optimal way.
About a Kabbalist and Not a Kabbalist
How can we explain the life of a Kabbalist as compared to the life of someone who is not a Kabbalist? This cannot be explained, because a person in this world—we know how he exists... You may not even agree with me, but in general, I would call his existence an automatic, forced existence. He exists out of necessity, pressure, and fears. All his actions are determined this way—by the desire to fill oneself, to fill oneself to the maximum with minimal efforts. This is the whole algorithm of our behavior.
Since a Kabbalist perceives the other level of existence, he has another algorithm of behavior, other equations, other formulas, other plans, and other programs of behavior. This is because he perceives, not just our world, trying to squeeze everything possible out of it, but rather, he perceives the Upper World and the Upper understanding. He sees what the upper, not-earthly, eternal, perfect existence is. He naturally behaves according to that level. Thus, his behavior is different. It is not under the dictation of corporeal, earthly considerations—what will happen now, the next moment, or, as it seems to us, during our next earthly incarnation. Rather, his behavior is dictated by the fact that he sees a perspective other than this life; he sees another dimension. Thus, he takes into consideration data inaccessible to an ordinary person. He acts in accordance with this.
It may seem to a naked eye that his actions are naïve, or that his behavior is, well—unsound. He does not strive for the biggest riches, security, or corporeal knowledge; he has no interest in earthly fame or power. However, this is because he is guided by the higher categories which suppress these small, earthly, temporary, low considerations. Thus, in general, his decisions are considerably, considerably higher, more reasonable, sound, than the decisions of any person in our world.
However, one must not impose his point of view to anybody, since it is the result of his own, personal perceptions. Thus, everybody acts to the measure by which they reveal existence. Hence, the only thing to which one should aspire, is to reveal, as fully as possible, the truly endless, great surrounding world; to perceive, from within it, all the forces, their properties, their predestination, and to join them.
About the Delight
What is the difference between the Spiritual, Upper, Kabbalistic delight and delight in our world? We can explain this using a simple example. When the desire is filled… (drawing) Let us picture our desire as a vessel. When our desire is filled with some pleasure… Here, the pleasure is “plus,” while our desire—hunger, yearning for fulfillment—“minus.” Then comes the delight.
So what happens next? The instant the delight enters the desire and starts filling it, the desire disappears, it decreases. Since it decreases, we do not feel any delight in it. No matter how hungry I am, when I begin to eat, with each bite I cancel out my desire for food, my hunger. And I thus stop feeling pleasure.
Meaning, since the desire and delight are opposite to each other, when they meet, each annuls the other. Therefore, no matter what we receive in our world, we always remain empty and without fail. We have to search again: what can we delight from now? For this reason, one is in a continuous search for desires (for “minus”) and then for their fulfillment. Receiving it, a person again searches for a desire, and again for fulfillment, and so on.
This is our entire life. In other words, the eternal state, where I remain filled after each fulfillment, does not exist. On the contrary, the first “zero” that I ended up with is twice as small that this one (drawing). This is because receiving fulfillment once made me realize that my previous desire and its fulfillment did not satisfy me. Meaning, I have to desire twice as much next time. The absolute values of both “plus” and “minus” pass to my next desire. I again feel a desire and run after even greater pleasures, and I again feel unhappy, becoming twice as empty. Such is my entire life, until I become tired of it, surrender, and die.
What is the solution for such a problem? In essence, this is our main problem. We can see it in a very simple example: when there is pleasure and it enters the desire, it enters it in order to move to the next desire. Say, pleasure—“plus”—goes from a mother to the son. The more pleasure the son receives, the greater is the delight of the mother. This is because of the separation: there is a gap between the pleasure that goes through her and the place in which it is perceived.
What then happens with the son? If he now receives the delight from the mother, will the delight annul the desire within him, leaving him empty? What can be done with this? There is another solution for the son—to receive pleasure as a good kid, because it makes his mother feel good.
As a result, we have a closed circle of uninterrupted energy, which lives permanently thanks to the circulation between these two objects. As a result, the son delights his mother, since the more he delights, the more pleasure he brings to her, for she delights in her son who tries to please her. In such a case, we have the eternal exchange of energy, the eternal love.
If we follow this example in creating the inner cycle of consumption, we will become fully filled, absolutely filled, and will never reach the state of “zero”—we will not experience it. On the contrary, we will circle around in this cycle until it will increase infinitely-infinitely-infinitely. And its continuous growth by the spiral will be positive and will never be experienced as bad. Negative desire will be felt only to the measure by which it will be simultaneously filled with the positive one. The delight will never cancel the desire.
By creating such a cycle inside of us, we will begin to feel the eternal existence, the eternal fulfillment, the eternal life. A Kabbalistic “cell” in a person is built according to this principle—receiving the light of life, receiving the perception of information, force.
This is why Kabbalah gets its name from the word “Lekabel”—“to receive.” The Science of Kabbalah is the science about receiving, since the reception does not occur naturally as it does in our world, where we constantly receive and become empty until we die.
This method is really very hard to understand at the beginning. However, once things fall into their places, a person sees how crystal clear it is. In our world, there is the excellent example of a mother and her son, although here, the relationship is based on natural love, natural predisposition. Yet, if I build such a relationship of “I with regard to everything else,” then in order to delight others, I receive the ultimate delight from above which, through them, returns to me again. If I build such a “cell” in myself, I practically become eternal and perfect. Meanwhile, nothing changes in me.
In part, this is what people who experience clinical death feel. Egoism which operates in the system where delight and pleasure annul each other is no longer in effect; people get detached from their body and start feeling the other type of information reception; they feel this entire eternity and perfection (for an instant) and then they come back and tell us about it. They do not realize what informational flow, informational exchange they entered, however, this is how it happens.
This recirculation process between the external and internal scope of a person is called “interaction between the soul and the universe.” The action outside of this recirculation, the broken action is simply the consumption for oneself, and it is called “earthly consumption.”
And so, a person will never find fulfillment in our world. On the contrary, the more he aspires for fulfillment, the emptier he becomes. As far as spiritual states go, we can only say that they are not constant, but that they increase indefinitely. We cannot imagine what indefinite growth is. Yet, it really is endless.